The Top Entrepreneurs in Money, Marketing, Business and Life

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews!
The Top is FOR YOU IF you are:
A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)
STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)
An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)
The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).
Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.
Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Kenny Ewan. He is in charge of the overall strategic direction for WeFarm where he oversees the day-to-day activities of the business. After graduating, he spent 7 years in Peru running an international NGO, specializing in work with indigenous communities. Kenny played the lead role in developing WeFarm, before launching it as a startup in 2015.

Tyler Tate. He’s the CEO of Crema.co, the coffee market place. Previously, he co-founded TwigKit, which is an enterprise search software and was the first design lead at Nutshell, which is a SaaS CRM platform. In each case, he used product strategy and design thinking to play its part in envisioning, designing and building products from the ground up. He’s also co-authored the book called Designing the Search Experience which Morgan Kaufmann published in 2013. He’s spoken at numerous conferences. While at TwigKit, he consulted for organizations such as The Financial Times, Thomson-Reuters, Qualcomm, Vodafone, ITV, Rolls-Royce, BASF and Gemalto, helping them design search-driven applications. He’s originally from Alabama, went to University of Kentucky, and spent 7 years in UK. He’s also lived in Seattle and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Tyler prefers reading blogs at the moment

What CEO do you follow? –Michael Dubin

Favorite online tool? —Trello

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Tyler wished he realized earlier how important a network is

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces Tyler to the show

02:41 – In TwigKit, Tyler was selling an expensive software product to large companies

03:00 – Tyler learnedthat he’d rather do something that is more marketing-driven than sales-driven—something that is more consumer-driven than enterprise

03:14 – Tyler’srealization inswitchingtoacoffee company from a SaaS business

03:28 – At Nutshell, Tyler was the first design hire

03:33 – Nutshell has 3 founders and a CTO

03:53 – Tyler, together with the whole team, was able to build something from the ground up

04:01 – Tyler had some equity in the business

04:38 – Tyler had put in $15K to Crema

05:05 – Tyler sold his equities back to TwigKit and Nutshell

06:03 – Tyler started working with Crema early 2015

06:08 – Tyler did a Kickstarter campaign andmade$25K

06:19 – Tyler closed and had anAngel round

06:25 – A total of $325K was raised and $150K came from 500 startups

06:48 – 500 startups had a deal of $150K for 6% which is a standard deal

07:21 – Crema is a marketplace for coffeedrinkers to subscribe to roast-to-order beans

07:35 – Crema has a platform fee on every order

07:43 – When you buy $18worthof coffee, Crema takesa$9 platform fee and the other $9 goes to the roaster

07:58 – The price that you pay is almost similar to retail price and the roaster price is above their typical wholesale price

08:15 – The total price includes shipping and other fees

09:00–$9 is a flat fee no matter the order size

09:46 – Crema’s concept is a single-origin emphasis

10:12 – Crema does the co-production for the roasters

10:24 – Crema has a storytelling teamthat writejournalistic write-ups for their website

10:43 – Team size

11:06 – Crema currently has 15 roasters

11:11 – With a total of 60 types of coffeebeans

11:27 – Crema had 750 customers in January 2017

11:30 – Generated $17K on the platform

11:44 – Crema’s growth is 28% month over month

11:48 – “We’re targeting something like 10x growth”

12:07 – Crema’s growth metric is based on GMV and revenue

13:55 – Average cart value is $17 for a typical purchase

14:08 – Each box of coffee is shipped individually

14:43 – A customer spends an average of $23 a month on the website

15:05 – Crema started in Kickstarter in October

15:13 – Crema has been generating organic traffic since then

15:48 – Crema has spent $5K for Facebook paid ads

16:06 – CAC is around $20-25 to convert website visitors to subscribers

17:02 – Cremaransurveys about people’scoffee drinking preferences

17:29 – Crema had sample packs for new customersallowing them totry 4 different types of coffee

20:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Shifting from B2B to B2C is a breeze when you really know who you want to target.

Great storytelling can engage consumers and connect them to the product.

Do not hesitate to meet people, move around, and build a network for yourself.

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences

Organifi– The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia

Klipfolio– Track your business performance across all departments for FREE

Jon Ferrara. He’s in CRM—a relationship management entrepreneur and noted speaker about social media’s effects on sales marketing. He’s reimagined the CRM by building a simply smarter social sales and marketing platform. His most recent venture is called Nimble.com. It’s the first CRM that works for you by building the updated contact data for you and then works with you everywhere you work. He’s best known as the co-founder of GoldMine Software, one of the early pioneers in the Salesforce automation and customer relationship management in software categories for SMBs. He’s recently been recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Social CEOs and Top 10 Social Sales people in the world.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Think and Grow Rich

What CEO do you follow? –Marc Benioff

Favorite online tool? —Buffer

Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — 7-8

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Not to sweat shit so much”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:17 – Nathan introduces Jon to the show

02:13 – There was noOutlook, CRM orSalesforcewhen Jon had the idea of GoldMine

02:31 – Jon started on $5K with no bank loans and VC

02:35 – Jon ran GoldMine for 10 years, had 5M customers around the globe, sold it and retired at 40

02:44 – GoldMine was a software platform

02:55 – GoldMine started as a floppy disk until it became a CD

03:28 – Jon started GoldMine in 1989 and sold it in 1999

03:38 – GoldMine passed $70M in annual revenue, with 250 team members worldwide

04:00 – ARR wasn’t necessary before when it comes to valuation

04:22 – Jon sold GoldMine for $125M in cashwithno strings attached

04:55 – A year after GoldMine was sold, Jonwas diagnosed witha head tumor

05:07 – “The most important thing you have around you is your health, next is your family,then your passion and business”

05:19 – Jon was 41 whentheyfoundthe tumor

05:27 – “We are on this planet to grow our souls”

05:51 – After the tumor, Jon spentnext10 years of his life withhis familyandfriends,adding value to people

06:15 – Jon got into photography and worked as the photographer for USC football for 10 years

06:42 – “You need to be your own advocate”

06:56 – Jon found a doctor who developedthetechnologyto have aradiation beamreachthe center of your head without touching any vital nerves

07:17 – The tumor disappeared after 7 weeks of radiation treatment

07:42 – The radiation is like burning the seed inside the watermelon without burning the watermelon’s skin

08:18 – Jon started in social media in 2006-2008

08:33 – Jon saw that relationship managers are contact managers

08:58 – Jon looked at CRM and saw the gap

09:07 – You have to use salespeople to use CRM

09:08 – “That’s why they’re called salesforce because you force salespeople to use it”

09:27 – Nimble’s team was formed in 2010, Alpha in 2011, and they turned the paywall in 2013

09:36 – “Just like with GoldMIne, I was early to the idea of an intelligent social relationship manager that works for you”

09:57 – Business is social and life is social

10:11 – First year revenue

10:21 – Jon got their first customer for Nimble the same way he got their first customer for GoldMine:

10:36 – Jonhad atrusted advisorforhis prospect

10:51 – Jon got his first $50K revenueinGoldMine from resellers

10:56 – Jon grew the $50K bymobilizingwriters who write about technology and business

11:10 – In 2009-2011, there was no reseller because everything was cloud

Ben Cantey. He’s a San Francisco entrepreneur and has a passion about solving problems and changing lives through technology. He teaches entrepreneurship and lean methodology at universities and high schools on his free time. He’s launching some bad-ass technology with a handful of math geniuses in a parking space.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –The Rough Riders

What CEO do you follow? –Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? —Yesware

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 8 1/2

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Execute faster”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:18 – Nathan introduces Ben to the show

01:51 –Park Evergreenrevolutionizes the way parking is sold and managed at airports

01:55 – Airports currently use a whole stack of services, suppliers and contractors that are outdated

Jim Sweeney. He’s the CEO and one of the founders of Clarify Medical. He began his entrepreneurial journey at Sharp Hospital where he worked full-time delivering hospital supplies while still in high school. He then spent 3 years in the US Army Medical Corps where he ran a remote, medical service dispensary serving 2500 families in Germany. He received a degree in business from San Diego State University. James has founded 12 medical companies including Caremark, Caps, Corum, Bridge Medical, CardioNet and co-founded Owned Outcomes. He’s also led a successful leveraged buyout or LBO with McGaw Labs which he took public and is now owned by BBraun. His financing history includes raising venture capital and expansion capital for his ideas leading to over $25B in exit values of companies he founded.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Zero to One

What CEO do you follow? – David Hale

Favorite online tool? — N/A

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Between 4-6

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Jim wished he knew“that the government would have the amount of influence on health care that they have, today”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:49 – Nathan introduces Jim to the show

02:53 – Clarify Medical has a first-mover advantage in the dermatology space

03:00 – They have well-established treatments for various skin diseases

03:17 – They’ve developed a device that will enable people to self-treat at home,using their smartphones

03:33 – The device will be launched directly to the patients

03:40 – The device is called ClarifyMobile UVBtreatmentsystem

03:59 – There are over 33M Americans who suffer from skin disease

04:21 – The device can be connected through the smartphone

04:51 – Jim has raised a little over $2B in venture capital

04:55 – Jim had an exit value of $25B for his companies

05:06 – There are exits via IPO and sales

05:40 – Jim shares why he decided to have an LBO with McGaw Labs

05:56 – Jim had been an employee of the company so he acquired the company with prior knowledge ofwhat their issues were

06:26 – The deal was in mid-October 1990

06:33 – The company’s valuation

07:27 – Jim bought the company with his friends

07:47 – The ClarifyMobile UVB treatment system device will sell for $600 or can be leased for $39 per month

08:15 – Jim expects to have long relationships with their patients becausesome of their skin diseases are life-long conditions

08:30 – If the device didn’t exist, patients would spend $100 annually for therapeutic drugs which have various side-effects

Bill Brice. He’s currently the CEO of AlphaTrust Corporation which he launched in 1998, to capitalize on the sustained long-term shift from paper-based document businesses to fully electronic document processes. Bill is considered as one of the industry’s pioneers and he’s a leading authority of electronic signatures, especially around generating real economic impact and brand enhancement. He served as chairman of the board for the Electronic Signature and Records Association and is currently a member of the board of directors. Before his electronic signatures company, he started his entrepreneurial career, when in college, by co-founding Brice Foods and is chairman and CEO. He grew the company into a global enterprise best known for its chain of frozen yogurt stores. The company grew into 1500 franchise locations and 43 countries with manufacturing operations on 4 different continents. For his work, he was awarded as The Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the International Franchise Association, which is the world’s oldest and largest organizations representing franchising worldwide.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Crossing the Chasm

What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? —HubSpot

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “At that time, I wished Iwouldknow what happened with the internet before it happened”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:23 – Nathan introduces Bill to the show

02:36 – Bill was based in Dallas and that’s where he started his yogurt company

Patrick McGinnis. He’s the author of The 10% Entrepreneur which focuses on living your startup dream without leaving your day job, which was just published by Penguin Portfolio. He’s also credited for coining up with the term “fear of missing out”. He’s a graduate of Harvard business school and is living in New York City.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –The Lean Startup

What CEO do you follow? –Sheryl Sandberg

Favorite online tool? —Quip

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6-12

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Patrick wished he had more confidence in his abilitiesand more open to trying new things

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:30 – Nathan introduces Patrick to the show

02:10 – Patrick is a Wall Street refugee

02:21 – Patrick has his own advisory firm

02:29 – Patrick built up his portfolio of over 20 investments

03:04 – Patrick worked with his friend inReal Influencefor free

03:14 – Theysold$300K-$400K

03:19 – The business didn’t push through and Patrick sold his shares

03:35 – Patrick was 33

03:46 – After a year, Patrick’s friend asked him if hewasinterested in investing in a startup

03:51 –Ipsyhas raised $100M

04:08 – Patrick is one of the first investors of Ipsy

04:32 – Ipsy’s co-founder isMichelle Phan

04:49 – Patrick’s friend who is the CEO of Ipsy met Michelle throughFunny or Die

05:46 – Michelle’s huge fan base made Ipsy spendzero on CAC

06:00 – How Patrick decided to invest in Ipsy

06:03 – Patrick’s friend was already raising a round

06:33 – Patrick’s friend already had a lead

06:38 – Patrick started his venture capitalist path in 2000

06:48 – Most of the deals Patrick looks at are simple deals

06:53 – Patrick invested in Ipsy in 2012

07:50 – Ipsy is one of Patrick’s most successful investments

08:00 – Another one of hisinvestmentswasBluesmart

08:24 –He also invested inAffinity which is a big data company

09:04 – How many deals do you have to make to ensure there’s a big exit in the portfolio?

09:12 – When Patrick started investing, he thought of the possible mistakes he couldmake as an investor

10:03 – As an investor, you have to invest in your area of expertise

10:08 – Second, think of the deal as a commercial deal, even with friends

10:21 – Third, don’t follow other people

10:39 – Stay away from “will-to-be” syndrome

11:09 – Patrick was workingwithAIG’s private equity fund

11:41 – Patrick shares why he wrote a book

11:48 – Patrick always talks to people about what he doesas an investor

12:12 – As Patrick metwith moreand morepeople, he realized that he could actually help peoplebelievein what he does

12:25 – “It’s been a blast actually and I love writing, anyway”

12:56 – Patrick shares why he decided to have a publisherratherthanself-publish his book

13:02 – Patrick wasn’t a well-known media figure and a publisher would help his credibility

13:12 – Patrick got a great editor

13:24 – Patrick wanted to go global

13:34 – Patrick has sold an average of 50K copies

13:40 –A book update is given every 6 months

14:00 – Patrick gets around 10% royalties on sales

14:26 – Patrick’s book is a bestseller in South Korea

14:48 – Patrick had an advance of around $100K prior to his book launch

14:58 – Patrick has an agentwho iswithUTA

15:38 – Patrick met his agent through his friend

16:02 – If you are generous to the world, it comes back to you in so many different ways

16:25 – “If you want to publish a book, you should know how hard it is”

16:40 – Publishing a book is like running a startup

16:54 – Patrickshared ona couple of podcasts which boosted his sales

17:03 – Patrick’s book is in physical bookstores, too

17:20 – Patrick was also live in CNN Espanol in South America

17:37 – Amazon’s ranking is always updated

17:44 – Patrick also has a group who does social media for him

18:22 – Launching a book is a process

18:56 – Patrick has a day job that covers the bills

19:12 – “Freelancing is great in terms of flexibility, but you build zero wealth”

19:48 – Patrick also invests in commercial real estate

20:04 – Patrick shares how he and his friend get dividends from real estate

23:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Investing in your friend’s business is a commercial deal, so invest wisely.

Be prepared—publishing a book is not a walk in the park and involves several processes.

Freelancing is great in terms of flexibility, but you build zero wealth.

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences

Organifi– The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia

Klipfolio– Track your business performance across all departments for FREE

Clate Mask and he has been educating and inspiring entrepreneurs for over a decade. He’s recognized by the small business community as a truly visionary leader. His passion for small business success stems from his personal experience, taking Infusionsoft from a struggling startup to an 8-time Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 winner. As CEO, he’s leading Infusionsoft on its mission to create and dominate the market of sales and marketing software for small businesses. Under Clate’s leadership, the company has landed 4 rounds of venture capital including a $55M series D led by Bain, with contributions from prior investors including Signal Peak Ventures and Goldman Sachs. He’s also named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends, and one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2013 by Goldman Sachs.

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Clate wished he knew that business, not law, was the path for him AND that building a team and culture is far more fun than making money.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:18 – Nathan introduces Clate to the show

02:28 – When you serve small businesses, make sure you have the right target customers

02:35 – There are 27M small businesses

03:02 – “You got to get it right. You got to get the market fit”

03:20 – Infusionsoft focuses on businesses with 2-25 employees but the sweet spot is 2-10 employees

Amarpreet Kalkat. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Frrole, an AI (artificial intelligence) startup that is redefining consumer intelligence. He loves building things, be it product, revenue streams, teams or organizations.

Amit Shanbhag. He bootstrapped RocketReach from 0 to over 300K registered users in its first year. RocketReach and RocketReach API are trusted by some of the largest companies on the planet like Apple, Google, Chase and Morgan Stanley—just to name a few. He has more than a dozen patents and has started his professional life writing code for geostationary satellites. He’s also a judge for the MIT $100K competition and hopes to invest more time and money back into the startup ecosystem.

David Tavor. He has more than 20 years of experience as a general manager and founder of Biotech Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Company. He served as a fighter pilot and a commander in the Israeli Air Force and retired with the rank of a colonel. Mr. Tavor holds an MA degree in political science and national defense studies and MBA studies.

Christopher Gibson. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Recursion Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company leveraging the latest automation, computation and biological tools to perform drug discovery at scale. Chris holds a BS in bioengineering, a BA in managerial studies, and a bioengineering PhD from the University of Utah.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –The Hard Thing About Hard Things

What CEO do you follow? –Perry Fell

Favorite online tool? —Slack

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 5.3to5.4

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Chris wished he knew where he was going togo sohe couldget to where he is now, faster

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:42 – Nathan introduces Chris to the show

02:12 – Recursion shortcuts the long, arduouspath of drug discovery into the market

02:24 – Recursion combines the best elements of biology, automation, and computation

02:34 – Recursion partners with large pharmaceutical companies

02:45 – Recursion partnered withSanofiGenzyme

02:51 – Sanofi had drugs that didn’t endup inthe market

03:10 – The challenges involved in being target-based

04:00 – Recursion earns from partnerships and royalties

04:20 – Recursion also has an internal pipeline for the drugs that they’vedeveloped themselves

04:43 – Recursion doesn’t earn from the internal pipeline

05:51 – Recursion and what they receive from their partners

06:28 – There are partnerships with very, little upfront

06:34 – There are partnerships thathave8 figures, upfront

06:46 – The number of scientiststhatwill work on the drug is also considered

07:22 – If Recursionissuccessfulwiththeir deals, they get royalties

08:38 – The royalties’ lifeline

08:56 – Recursion has 40 people

09:25 – Recursion was launched in 2013

09:34 – They sat in their office untilJanuary 2014

10:01 – Chris was part of a program where he was paid a stipend, so he broke even

10:20 – Chris’ parents were excited about his PhD

10:37 – Recursion has raised $19M in equity and $5M non-diluted from grants and private foundations

11:28 – Recursion’s valuation as a platform company

12:14 – If Recursion will be successful, they willimpactthe society in a big way

12:41 – It is vision-based

12:54 – First year revenue was 6 figures

13:12 – “Our deals have been strategic in terms of the way we put them together”

13:45 – 2017 target

16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Different sources of revenue benefit a company.

The valuation of your company depends on how your company is currently performing and how well they will perform in the industry.

First year revenue isn’t always nil.

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences

Organifi– The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia

Klipfolio– Track your business performance across all departments for FREE

Gregg Freishtat. He’s a technology executive with over 20 years of experience leading innovative and transformative companies. He founded 4 venture-backed startups, all of which had successful exits and is now building a company called SalesWise. He’s deeply rooted in venture capital and the management of internet technology companies having led several through acquisitions. He’s also handled developing and disruptive technologies, convergence of telecom plus internet, personal finance and online banking, web-based analytics and digital media, such as online marketing and currently relationship intelligence.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Good to Great

What CEO do you follow? –Mark Benioff

Favorite online tool?–FullStory

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Don’t sell your first company for $20M, when you can sell it for $50M”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:18 – Nathan introduces Gregg to the show

01:59 – SalesWise is a business relationship intelligence platform

02:03 – SalesWise helps sales leaders gainvisibilityofthe most important relationships they have

02:17 – SalesWise is a SaaS company, but doesn’t charge per seat

02:21 – SalesWise believes in democratizing data

02:31 – SalesWise pricesbased on the company size

02:52 – Average customer pay per month

02:53 – $500/month for entry level companies with less than 100 employees

03:00 – A company with 2K employees pays $2500 a month

03:11 – SalesWise was founded in 2015 and theircurrent product was launched 4 months ago

03:33 – Gregg sold his last company toOutbrain

04:23 – SalesWise was bootstrapped for 6-8 months

04:50 – Gregg has raised a total ofjustover $3M

04:58 – All priced rounds

05:02 – Gregg’s initial capital was a convertible note

05:12 – SalesWise has 12 team members and is currently hiring sales and marketing people

05:46 – SalesWise’s current number of customers

06:00 – Average MRR

06:10 – The whole team is based in the Atlanta Tech Village

06:30 – Anticipated customer churn

07:16 – Some of SalesWise’s competitors areSalesforceandXero

08:17 – The guys in the BI space,likeDomoandTableau

08:43 – SalesWise isn’t into webscraping

08:38 – SalesWise usesClearbit

08:55 – SalesWise is breaking the linear relationship you have with email

09:29 – SalesWise walked directly into the APIs ofSalesforceandGmail

10:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Use your frustration as motivation to make things better.

Keep building companies – you’re constantly learning and contributing to the industry while doing so.

Don’t settle for less or devalue yourself and your company – reach beyond your expectations.

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences

Organifi– The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia

Klipfolio– Track your business performance across all departments for FREE

In Episode #629, Nathan interviews Jennifer Reyna. She’s got a lot of energy and more importantly, she studied business creation and development in Mexico. She’s created 3 startups so far, Agri DeliCo which is a socio-company, Brain Fusion which is embedded in software development, and Gaszen or gas management. They’ve raised over $650K in Mexico and have developed their own working product. She’s a mother, lover, sister, and daughter that enjoys her life and lives with zero regrets. She said, after all, there’s only one life and she’s in a constant pursuit of the best version of herself.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Lean Startup

What CEO do you follow? –Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? —Slack

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That hard work can make everything happen for sure”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:34 – Nathan introduces Jennifer Reyna to the show

02:22 – Jenny realized that people complain about their gas

02:38 – Jenny created a devicethatworkswithstationary tanks

02:48 –Gaszenhas an application where the consumer can see his gas consumption, statistics, and choose the best gas supplier

02:59 – Gaszen monetizes through selling information to gas suppliers

03:08 – Gaszen also monetizes from a consumer who wants automation

03:34 – Gaszen isn’t in the market yet and is still finishingitsdevelopment

03:41 – Gaszen will start selling in April

03:43 – Gaszen already approached gas suppliers and has pre-ordered from them

03:57 – There are already 2 gas suppliers whohavebought from Gaszen

04:05 – Gaszen also has real estate clients

04:31 – Gaszen has partnered with 3 real estatefirms

04:35 – Gaszen is currently in discussion with 15 more real estate firmsin Mexico

In Episode #628, Nathan interviews Iddo Gino. He’s the CEO and co-founder of RapidAPI which he founded when he was 16 years old. He’s listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and previously, he was the co-organizer at Hacking Gen Y. Originally from Israel, Iddo, currently resides in San Francisco, California where he runs RapidAPI and runs JavaScript projects on the side.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –The Hard Thing About Hard Things

What CEO do you follow? –Stewart Butterfield

Favorite online tool? —GitHub

Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — 6-7 hours

If you could let your 10-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? –“I wish I knew what I didn’t know back then”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:22 – Nathan introduces Iddo to the show

01:57 – RapidAPI let developers find APIs online

02:09 – RapidAPI has a marketplace model where developers can pay for the APIs

02:16 – RapidAPI’s processing fee is from 10% - 25%

02:30 – The fee depends on the API vendor

02:46 – RapidAPI is like a point connection for developers to find APIs

02:55 – Iddo was part of Hacking Gen Y

03:09–Iddo realized how powerful APIswerewhile he wasatHacking Gen Y

03:18 – Iddo created the first version of RapidAPI

03:41 – Together with Iddo is his co-founder,Mickey Haslavsky

03:49 – Team size is 20

03:58 – The engineering team is in Israel and marketing and sales teams are in San Francisco

04:10 – Developers’ salaries in Israel

04:34–RapidAPI just announced their seed round in November

04:44 – Total amount raised was $3.5M and an equity round

05:00–RapidAPI started as an open-source project

05:40 – There are 148K apps or projects that have usedSlackin RapidAPI

05:54 – Slack is a free API and the service is free, but there are paid APIs

In Episode #627, Nathan interviews Mark Mader. He’s the CEO of Smartsheet. He’s passionate about delivering superior, customer experiences. Mark strives to find innovative ways for customers to collaborate more intelligently using the Smartsheet platform and its partner ecosystem. Prior to Smartsheet, Mark served as SVP of Global Services for Onyx Software, leading the consulting and consumer operation team in America, Europe and Asia. In 2015, he was recognized as Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of Technology for the Pacific NorthWest.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Play Bigger

What CEO do you follow? – Stat Mandella

Favorite online tool? — Tripit

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No

If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “You tell me what the major trends are in the next 3 decades, in tech, and I would make you a lot of money”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Mark to the show

02:21 – Smartsheet is a software SaaS company

02:27 – The people who subscribe to Smartsheet are teams and enterprise teams

02:47 – Smartsheet is similar to Trello’s space but in the enterprise class

02:57 – Smartsheet has everything from time tracking to other things that are more diverse in nature

03:23 – Smartsheet serves 65K distinct brands on a paid basis

03:30 – Each brand pays an average of $1K annually

03:36 – The range is $200 to $1.6M annually

04:08 – Average MRR is $5.4M

04:20 – Smartsheet has been growing really well for the past 4 years

04:43 – “As you grow bigger, the gross rate is more challenging”

04:47 – Smartsheet isn’t only focused on getting new customers, but on helping their customers grow as well

05:23 – 2016 revenue

05:37 – 2017 target ARR

06:10 – First year revenue was zero

06:37 – Smartsheet’s promise didn’t change, but how they brought the product to the market changed dramatically

06:55 – 60% of Smartsheet’s revenue came from customers who learned about Smartsheet organically

07:18 – Smartsheet’s first million ARR was in 2010

08:02 – Smartsheet has raised a total of $70M

08:16 – Mark feels that they have a really good platform

08:21 – Team size

08:55 – Have the balance sheet in your model if you want to invest more this year

09:06 – Smartsheet is still trying to focus on efficiency in their growth model

09:34 – Smartsheet’s current status is that they have the decision to slow their growth or drive profit overnight

09:57 – “Control your own destiny”

10:06 – Smartsheet is currently not cash flow positive, but still a healthy business

10:20 – Smartsheet is based in Seattle, Washington and will have an office in Boston

10:48 – Smartsheet has a diverse funnel

11:02 – Smartsheet spends millions of dollars in paid advertising a year

11:34 – One of Smartsheet’s keys to growth is to go where the action is

11:39 – “Dominate in the world of collaborative, work management and partner effectively with the tools people use and love”

11:50 – “Partner with the places where heat exists”

12:08 – It’s about having an ecosystem mindset

12:30 – Gross customer churn

13:17 – Smartsheet has a broad population service

13:31 – “The key to sustain long-term growth is not just keeping up, but expanding”

13:59 – Smartsheet can still grow by 30% in 2017, without new customers

14:17 – Smartsheet charges the people who create new work in their application

15:00 – Smartsheet’s safe LTV

15:25 – Smartsheet looks at their specific sources and campaigns

16:06 – Smartsheet’s cohort analysis

17:22 – Smartsheet’s last round of raising was in 2014

19:16 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Focus not only on acquiring new customers, but helping your current customers to grow their company.

The key to sustaining long-term growth is not just keeping up, but expanding.

Dominate in the world of collaborative, work management and partner effectively with the tools people use and love.

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences

Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia

Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE

In Episode #626, Nathan interviews Derek Thompson. He’s a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, one of the biggest media companies out there. His first book, Hit Makers, is about the science of hits, pop culture, and technology and why people like what they like. He currently resides in New York.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Homo Deus

What CEO do you follow? –Mark Zuckerberg

Favorite online tool? —Evernote

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Take more risks because people are fundamentally resilient and can handle the downside of those risks”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Derek to the show

02:15 – The reason people go into journalism is because they seek answers to questions

02:21 – For Derek, the best reason to write a bookwasto answer questions

02:29 – Derek loved writing about what people like

02:33 – People saya book has to have an“elevator pitch”

02:39 –Books are more of a broken elevator

03:36 – “Creativity is the ability to come up with surprising answers to familiar problems”

04:36 – Derek wrote his book to allow himself the opportunity to be curious about anythinghe foundinteresting

05:00 – Derek worked withPenguin Publishing

05:10 – Derek had an agent, Dell Ross, whowasDerek’s proposal doctor

05:35 – Derek and his agent sent the proposal to every publisher they couldreach

In Episode #625, Nathan interviews Josh McCarter. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Booker Software, a leading business management and marketing solution serving over 10,000 health and beauty businesses. Josh has served in a variety of senior executive board roles at various technology companies including Arbitech, Spafinder and Autobytel.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Make Big Happen

What CEO do you follow? –Steve Case, author ofThe Third Wave

Favorite online tool? —OpenTable

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Startups are a blast, but they are not easy”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:23 – Nathan introduces Josh to the show

01:59 – Booker is a business management and marketing solution for health and wellness businesses

Dave Currie. He’s an entrepreneur-leader in the sales intelligence space, specifically for advertising, media, and the tech industry. Since 2014, he’s directed the company on a rapid innovation and growth trajectory. They are recognized by their customers and the industry as one of the largest, agile, fast-growing, private companies and the best place to work in America—the company, TheListInc.com.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –The Hard Thing About Hard Things

What CEO do you follow? –Kyle Porter

Favorite online tool? — N/A

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Balance is as important right now as you thought about it then. Being healthy is#1. Work and everything fall into place when you got your priorities stacked up the right way”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:40 – Nathan introduces Dave to the show

03:20 – The List is also knownfromtheir other products

03:34 –Winmowas launched last year

03:41 – Winmo is the lead brand

03:52 – Winmo is a subscription-based, sales intelligence platform

04:01 – Winmo provides sales intelligence to national advertisers

04:28 – Winmo has an annual subscription

04:45 – Annual subscription increases the valuation

04:55 – Winmohas beencompletely bootstrapped since day 1

05:09 – The List started in 1995 and went online in the early 2000s

05:25 – Dave came into The List in 2005

05:45 – The List is a joint venture with a company intheUK

06:08 – The team currently has 85 members

06:27 – Average annual customer pay

06:38 – Winmo initially charges $400-500 per user annually

07:07 – CAC

07:14 – “We’re very deliberate with our marketing efforts”

07:24 – 2014 paid marketing expenditure was around $100K, but was toned down currently to $50K

08:03 – The $50K would go to Google AdWords and some retargeting

08:17 – Dave’s target CAC

08:50 – Dave’s looking into 25% conversion rate

09:17 – Winmo has 4 targets in the UK and USA

09:44 – Winmo also sells to marketing services agencies

10:19 – Winmo has a good customer retention

10:46 – Winmo is just a bit stronger in the media space over the agency

In Episode #623, Nathan interviews Richard Brasser. He’s the foremost expert in helping companies increase the effectiveness and influence of their Salesforce’s strategic use of social communication. He does this through his company, rFactr. Richard pursues his focus in enabling salespeople to leverage social communication and build more meaningful relationship.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Crossing the Chasm

What CEO do you follow? –Tony Robbins

Favorite online tool? —Outlook

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Very rarely

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Richard wished he knew the concept of compounding interest and the concept of deferred asset allocation

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:34 – Nathan introduces Richard to the show

02:15 – Companies need to engage their buyers in a more meaningful way

02:32 – rFactr is focused on enhancing sales people’s ability to connect with people

02:51 – rFactr’s platform is called a social port

03:15 – rFactrhas aper month/per user model

03:26 – rFactr is not a marketplace

03:33 – rFactr is directly plugged into companies’ CRMs

03:55 – Average customer pay per month

04:15 – rFactr has channel activations

04:40 – rFactr’s starting price is $5K a month

04:49 – rFactr was launched in 2009

04:57 – rFactr was bootstrapped for the first 8 years

05:04 – rFactr had a seed round and will probably have a series A

05:17 – rFactr has raised a total of$9M

05:32 – Richard played golf on tour for 7 years

05:45 – Richard made a good amount from playing golf

06:01 – Richard was already 7 years in business when he needed someone for the operations and finance side of the company

06:08 – Richard’s partner was just exiting his software company when he joined rFactr

In Episode #622, Nathan interviews Nektarios Liolios. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Startup Bootcamp, Financial Technology, and Insurance Technology—the leading innovation program in the financial and insurance industry. They provide funding, mentorship, office space in the heart of London, Singapore, New York and Mumbai and access into their global network including investors and VCs, up to 10 folks, each time they do it.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –The Lean Startup

What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? —Slack

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Nektarios wished that at 20, he would have known that he didn’t know everything and to be less scared

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:28 – Nathan introduces Nektarios to the show

02:08 –StartupBootcamp FinTechis a network of accelerators

02:17 – It is cohort-based

02:24 – The programs are industryfocused programs

02:58 –Startup Bootcamp FinTech has 400 companies that have graduated

03:12 –Startup Bootcamp FinTech was launched in January 2014

03:29 – Nektarios shares howStartup Bootcamp FinTech started

03:56 – “To add real value, you need to be super sharp in your focus”

04:20 –Startup Bootcamp FinTech doesn’t take investments, but they take equity

04:30 –Startup Bootcamp FinTech takes 6% equity

05:52 –Startup Bootcamp FinTech has a variety of programs

06:35 – One of their teams is in Singapore

07:30 –Walnut AlgorithmsofFrance ispart oftheir program

07:47 – It was built thinking it wouldrevolutionize the algorithm industry

In Episode #621, Nathan interviews Nevin Shetty. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Registry, an innovative wedding registry platform where you can shop for products from a variety of retailers based on the layout of your home. The company has generated over $10M in their first 2 years of operation.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? –Smarter Faster Better

What CEO do you follow? –Jeff Bezos

Favorite online tool? —SimilarWeb

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No

If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I should’ve learned computer programming”